


Flower of a Valiant Heart

by Lenny_1102



Category: Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)
Genre: #charlesxhenry, #flowerfellau, #stickmen, #undertaleau, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:22:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27971528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lenny_1102/pseuds/Lenny_1102
Summary: Henry Stickmin has grown tired of being used. His emotions and freedom of choice is nonexistent, since his sole purpose is to entertain each and every players that play the game, who are all in charge of the decisions he makes. But this version of the game has been very odd lately. According to the CCC, it has caused the game itself to have a major chaos reading of over 9, making the world glitch to its core. Will Henry be able to fix things, or will he fail and just give up, allowing chaos to take over?The story is set in the Flowerfell AU.
Relationships: Charles Calvin & Henry Stickmin, Charles Calvin/Henry Stickmin
Comments: 16
Kudos: 49





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edited 2/19/21
> 
> Editor's Note(Star): Hello! Chapter One is edited once again, but nothing much changed, so don't worry. Look forward to an edited Chapter Two and the upcoming Chapter Three soon!
> 
> Author's Note: I would like to apologize for the wait, due to some editing problem and lack of time. We have to change some word or two to make it easier for my editors in the future chapters. Thank you to all of you for being patient with us. We'll continue chapter 3 as soon as we can.

**Flower of a valiant heart**

_ Ship Henry x Charles _

_ Story by Len (me) _

_ With a little help from Haz, Star, Nep, and Rev _

_ Inspired by Flowerfell _

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**_"Valiant Hero : Where it all begins"_ **

Henry sighed, the feeling of fatigue and exhaustion was no longer a bother to him anymore. It was not a physical exhaustion. Really, it was more along the lines of mental exhaustion instead. Brain mush, he affectionately called it. He closed his eyes and prepared for what was about to happen next.

"Again?"

Henry said to no one in particular, his own body starting to move on its own. He could feel the Player “click” at the wrong option, turning everything as a  _ Fail _ . Henry then heard a faint sound of laughter as the world around him turned grey, with only a big red  _ Fail  _ sign in front of him.

"What's so funny about seeing me hurt?" he muttered under his breath. 

Henry could not understand why his life had been nothing but a constant string of  _ Fails _ , one after the other. He already lost count of the number of times he had hurt himself, again and again, just to be laughed at by this "entity" known as the Player.

In every choice he made (the Player’s choice, it’s never him —  _ never _ ), he always felt sorry for hurting the people that he could have been befriended, or to make wise decisions of trying not to make enemies of people he would rather not anger.

With every Ending they got (he and the Player have been together for so long, they could be considered a team. An unconventional one, but a team nonetheless) Henry wished he could stay and be happy with the ending they managed to complete. But everytime Henry hears that single “click”...

He will end up going back to the beginning — doing the same things, but with different options, different paths, different tools and gadgets that could either help him or  _ kill _ him.

Not only that, but he remembered Ellie…

Dear sweet Ellie, the best woman he has ever met. She experienced what it feels like to be captured, making Henry and Ellie understand each other slightly better than most. What Henry treasured the most between the two of them was their friendship. A huge example to that was their great alliance of when they escaped  _ The Wall. _ She would support him with anything whenever the Player chose paths that have them working together.

Despite the wonderful memories, what hurt the most was when she had the whole Toppat Clan go against him. 

He remembered her speaking with venom dripping from her voice as she explained to everyone of the foulest move he did of leaving her behind, right after she helped him escape  _ The Wall _ . He then remembered her holding up a gun at him with the intention to shoot. But what hurt the most …

The burning glare she shot him, with the agonizing pain of betrayal that only he could pick out from her eyes.

Henry hated it. He could see the hatred in her eyes. He hated this Ending the most, out of all endings. The Player was to blame, the main reason for choosing the string of choices that led to that very moment.

No matter what he will do  —  what the  _ Player  _ will do  — Ellie would never be the friend that he once knew. This fact was like a knife, stabbing him right down to the core, with the knowledge that he knew that once he is sent back to the beginning  —  going through all the same motions once again  —  he would rather choose the ending of "Presumed Dead" instead. At least with that thought, he could continue on with the story without hurting her. By being dead, no one could get hurt. Ellie does not know him in this path (he will not feel the pain of seeing her suffer, will not see her eyes widening in hurt, will not—), Charles would probably be doing a mission assigned to him, and the Toppat leaders would be sent to jail. He wanted this path instead of hurting Ellie in  _ that _ route.

Every so often, when there was an Ending he likes, he would wish he could stay and live out his life in there (he thinks about the Ending where he sided with the government, a certain fiery redhead and a hyperactive pilot by his side, solving and completing missions handed to them) but it was not his choice to do anything. (It never was.)

But now with the “Presumed Dead” route, he just had to make do with whatever he has got. 

Later, when he watched the TV in the bar, surprise hit him with the knowledge that the Toppat gang was still doing crimes, even after their leaders have been locked up. He was wondering what was going to happen next. He had counted out how many times he had to repeat everything from the beginning, and so far it had only been five times.

"I guess this is the sixth time I’m here,” he said to himself. “But what am I gonna do? I'm dead to everyone. No one knows if I am dead, as well as if I am alive. No one cares." 

Then he remembered Charles.

Charles Calvin, the cheerful pilot with his so-called “Greatest Plan”. The only person who talked to Henry in a friendly manner in every route that the Player took. No matter how many times he betrayed him, Charles would still say hi to him and smile at Henry, as if the criminal did not just betray him to join the Toppats or for Henry’s own gain.

"I wonder what he’s doing," Henry mused to himself with a little smile, remembering how the Goofy Charles was like.

Henry never once thought about love, nor did he ever had any sexual desires for anyone, but for once in his messed up life he started having a sneaking suspicion of what might be this feeling in his heart...

To be honest, feelings or empathy was never really his strongest suit. He would rather not feel anything (seeing him  —  the Player  — betray the people he cared about hurts him) but sometimes when he  _ did  _ feel something, it tended to be confusing when he tried to pinpoint the feeling in his chest, since he was  _ not  _ supposed to feel anything. It would break the game if he had any feelings outside of the programming he was given.

That would make sense. After all, everytime Henry felt or tried to say anything, it would lead to _Fails_ — or be cut off by the sudden transition. No wonder he stayed silent all the time, huh. With that aside, Henry gave out a sigh of relief with the thought that he will not harm anyone just by being ‘dead’. It was probably for the best.

Though, he wished he could see Charles again.

Henry rubbed his hand behind his neck, giving another sigh, but this time out of sheer exhaustion. "If I can go back again, I want to be there to make sure you keep smiling, Charles. Wherever you may be..."

As soon as Henry said that, he heard a gunshot outside  — multiple gunshots.

Worry and concern entered his mind, his body already starting to move on its own, eager to see what was going on. With the thought about the Player, knowing they will start to make a decision that Henry will have no choice but to follow, Henry allowed the flow of events to lead him to whatever was in store for him.

"Guess I gotta do my job as the puppet here,” he swung the door open, letting the cool air hit his face. “Hope nothing bad happens in this timeline."

As he walked out from the bar, he then saw three Toppat members running out of a thrashed truck and getting ready to warp back into their space rocket. Before they could leave though, they tried to shoot at the one who was chasing them, hoping their chaser would get hit by the bullet. Too bad, though, as it entirely missed the target. While said target was distracted, they made their escape.

The one who had been chasing the Toppats tried to stop them with a couple more shots, but knew he missed his opportunity when the group managed to escape. He took a few more breaths of disappointment when he failed to stop them. Fortunately, that disappointment did not last long when he then turned around to see Henry. The look of shock was then turned into one of excitement on his face. He went over to Henry to greet him right away, even if he just failed to catch the Toppats.

“Henry? Henry! I heard you died!” Charles did not care, since he was happy to see Henry alive and well.

Now back at the bar, Charles then proceeded to tell him that everyone in the military thought Henry died after failing to escape  _ The Wall _ . Henry just smiled and let Charles do the talking so that he could catch up with what was happening.

Seeing Charles overwhelmed with excitement and having a goofy attitude made Henry feel a bit more happy. It felt like he had not been controlled at all. He felt normal for a moment, but then it changed when Charles started discussing plans on how to make a duo attack to finish off the remaining Toppat members.

Henry had never seen Charles this motivated at all, and it felt like it had been forever since they both did missions. Henry accepted Charles' suggestion of teaming up as they both walked out of the bar. He contemplated that if this was to be similar to his last mission with Charles

(capturing the toppat leader, he assumed) then this should be easy to do. Plus, both of them could hangout after this. He imagined he could ask Charles to have a walk with him to catch up on things, and just have a nice talk by the end of the mission...

If only it could have ended that way.

Few hours later, Charles and Henry managed to take a military spaceship prototype to space, where the Toppat space station was currently residing. Henry was amazed at how the ship looked like a UFO with the military logo. He wondered if the military stole the idea from all the memes around the internet to create such a machine.

While he was lost in thought, they finally managed to get near the Toppat station.

Charles was so excited to do the mission, showing that (cute) goofy smile of his. In Henry's perspective, Charles looked adorable, making him wonder how a grown man like him could act so childish despite doing a dangerous mission. If Henry could see his own face at the moment, he could guess his face would show that he was obviously in love with this man. His heart then started racing a bit at the thought of what if Charles could aim that wonderful smile to him —

Before Henry could say something to the pilot, the Player had started choosing an option to progress the game further.

"Damnit, Player. You have terrible timing," Henry mumbled to himself in annoyance, as to not let Charles hear him. "You can't even let me enjoy my time with Charles, can you?"

True to fashion, the Player chose none of the correct options, randomly assuming which of them was the "Right Choice". It led to multiple deaths for Henry. What a bummer.

_ ‘This is very annoying,’ _ Henry thought while he was in the big ball of trash after dying a lot. 

Finally, Henry got near the ship safely — in one piece, might he add.

"Finally! Now, let's see. Oh dear, not this agai—"

Before Henry knew it, the Player already chose the “Charles” option, because  —  why not? For jokes and giggles just like last time? Henry braced for the  _ Fail _ that was about to come, just like all the “Charles” options that the Player chose in the past...

Nope. It turned out it worked. Somehow.

Henry was in shock, but at the same time it still annoyed him of the fact of how the Player lets him die over and over again. Well, at least he and Charles could do the mission together instead of just communicating through their earpieces only. 

Everything went as planned. The only problem was escaping, since their only way back to Earth was also crushed to bits, thanks to Charles crashing it to the station. Every Toppat member was either dead or running to an escape pod. Thankfully no one heard them crawling through the vents, even if Charles sang as they crawled.

When they managed to get in an escape pod, both of them gave out a breath of relief. It felt so nice to finally defeat the Toppat clan. Now they will not cause any more problems. Hopefully.

Henry looked at Charles.

_ ‘His headset is broken... maybe I could buy him a new one if the landlord didn't steal my money at home by the time we come back.’ _

While lost in thought, one of the Toppat members yanked him out of the space pod they were in and tossed him out of it.

Charles saw Henry was not able to fight back, due to the injuries he caused by hitting the space rocket near Henry. So Charles got up and helped Henry get back in the pod by shoving the Toppat member away from Henry. Though, by doing so, the Toppat stopped Charles from getting in.

When Charles fell, he accidentally pressed the button that closed the door of the pod. At least the Toppat member could not get in it to hurt Henry. To play it safe, Charles shoots the Toppat with a gun, just in case they try to open the door again. He was running out of time, so Charles used whatever he could to make sure the Toppat member would not try to escape, or even harm Henry. 

Inside the pod, Henry watched in horror as he was unable to open the escape pod or help Charles.

"Don't worry about me  —  ow!” Charles yelped in pain. “I'll find another way—"

As soon as Charles said that, the pod finally launched out of the station. Looking through the window, Henry tried to find any clues that can assure him that Charles made it out alive.

Nothing so far.

"No. No. No. This can't be happening! Charles, get out of there! You need to  — please, don't let this happen. He doesn't deserve this — "

Henry panicked. Still no sign of Charles. 

Then, he heard Charles’ voice in his earpiece.

_ "H-Henry? You there?" _

Henry smiled with tears flowing down his cheeks, excited to know Charles was still alive, but what he heard next made his happiness die down. Due to Charles’ injuries from fighting the Toppat member, he was unable to walk, and what made it worse was that Charles and Henry knew that there were no more escape pods available.

Charles, with his tired and yet still cheery voice, comforted Henry that he was fine.

_ “Aw, man, that roughed me up… got them, though.” _

Henry felt dread filling his heart.

"No,” he whispered. “Charles…”

_ “Gotta be another escape pod around here somewhere,”  _ Charles then grunted, probably from pain.

Henry did not want to hear it.

"Please  —  stop it."

_ “We did it though,”  _ Charles continued.  _ “We got them…” _

He knew what he was going to say.

"Stop it, please!"

_ “Pretty good plan…” _

_ STOP! _

_ “Could say it was the greatest _ _ —” _

Explosion was shown from the window.

Henry smashed his fist on the glass out of shock and disbelief  —  _ desperation. _

"CHARLES!" 

_ No, NO! CHARLES! _

He slammed his fist on the window, over, and over, and over again, but… no matter how hard he hits the glass, he knows it will not save Charles  —  because he was  _ dead _ .

As the escape pod entered the earth’s atmosphere and was nearing the ground, it slowly fell safely near the military base as several other escape pods landed near the sea or the forest nearby. Henry, with tears coming out uncontrollably from his eyes, sat in the escape pod, not moving a muscle until one of the military soldiers came and opened the pod.

Shocked to see Henry there instead of a Toppat member, Henry was almost captured until one of the soldiers pointed out that he was a friend that Charles told them so much about.

"Him? Charles’ friend?" one of them said out loud, not believing what the other soldier was saying.

"He and Henry were in the base, looking for the prototype. He said he wanted to finish off the Toppat clan once and for all."

Half of the soldiers looked around for any more escape pods and the rest who did not leave stayed with Henry.

"Oh, did he now? That Charles guy always goes out on his own. Can't believe he pulled it off. Where is he anyways?"

When they asked, Henry could not help but feel tears pricking at the corner of his eyes, then he started to cry once again, leading them to the sudden realization that Charles was not with him — that Charles is _dead_ — that Charles sacrificed himself to defeat the Toppat clan. Some of the soldiers got distraught from knowing the truth, some even got angry that Charles did this without having backup, and some were in denial just like Henry.

One of them asked Henry to follow them so that he could report back to base and let the General know about this. Henry, unable to say anything, just followed them and let the game progress further.

They held a memorial ceremony for Charles later on. Everyone in Charles' team, or anyone who knew Charles personally, saluted one last time as a farewell to the valiant hero. So did Henry.

Everyone left after the ceremony  — everyone except Henry.

The player left the game. Probably due to the emotional impact the game gave them. So Henry stayed  —  in a timeline where he lost everything.

His place.

His name.

His life. 

Now… the only person who always smiled and had Henry’s back, no matter what he chose, was gone forever.

The player achieved all of the endings, except the  _ Fails _ , but Henry was not in the mood to see those  _ Fails _ .

His mind was not stable enough to do all of that shit. He lost everything and now  —  what? Did he have to wait for the player to get their mood straight, just so that they could keep torturing him?

"No! I won't allow that!"

Henry looked at Charles' grave. Slowly, he touched the grave, even when his hand was shaking.

"If I could just go back..."

Tears fell through his eyes and he knelt down to hug the tombstone.

"If I were to be given the chance to save you," he covered his face. It pained him so much that he could see flashes of the past where he first met Charles, how they became friends, became enemies, all of Charles’  _ Fails  _ —  _ everything.  _ "I would—"

Henry watched the memory of Charles' death again, and again, in his head. At one point, Charles goes farther and farther from away from his grasp.

He could not stop thinking about it, and the more he replayed the memory, the more it felt like someone was choking him — as if  _ he  _ was choking himself.

As his mind slowly became gray and all he heard was static, he then heard a voice call out to him.

"Henry."

He turned around to see that it was one of the CCC agents. The agent was smoking a cigarette and looking into a strange device in hand that lets out a noise every few seconds.

"So, it's you that’s making this chaos reading go over 9,” he said it more as a fact than a question. “It's always been you."

Henry looked away and laid down next to the grave. He refused to listen to the man.

"You've been here long enough, Henry. Please, move on. If you don't, this timeline will erase itself." 

Bill did not want to push Henry over Charles' death, but lately the chaos reading was growing, so he wanted to stop it before anything bad happens.

"Mind if I sit with you?" Bill asked in a surprisingly gentle voice.

Henry did not say anything and hugged himself while looking at the sky. Despite no answer from Henry, Bill sat right next to him anyways, and it made him realize that Henry was wearing one of Charles' jackets.

_ ‘No wonder the reading is getting high,’  _ Bill thought to himself. He sighed and decided to re-introduce himself to the grieving ex-thief. 

"I'm Corporal Bill Bullet from the Chaos Control Center. My job is to detect the cause of chaos and make more chaos to balance the reading, but I'm afraid when it's come to you, Henry Stickmin, you might make the timeline erase itself."

Henry looked at him from the ground, "I just wanted to be with Charles. Before, I used to feel calm with him around..."

Bill then heard the device’s noise getting louder. He frowned. This meant the Game was rebooting itself already, due to Henry’s overwhelming emotions, causing the game to have new problems.

Unable to do anything, and seeing their world was going to be rebooted, Bill turned away to call Wilson Stone. 

"Hey, Wilson. This is Bill."

There was a muffled  _ “Is everything ok?”  _ from the phone. Bill sighed, replying back to Wilson, "You should go home and spend more time with your family. I can deal with this, don't worry."

* * *

_ \- Alert : Timeline has detected a strong error _

_ \- Player unable to open the Game _

_ \- Processing virus scan _

_ \- Scan complete _

_ \- Warning : Unable to locate the file _

_ \- Correcting file in 24 hours _

_ \- Please do not close the PC until the process is complete _

**_To be continued_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited 1/20/21
> 
> Editor's Note(Star): Hello! Chapter One is edited once again, but nothing much changed, so don't worry. Look forward to an edited Chapter Two and the upcoming Chapter Three soon!
> 
> Author's Note: I would like to apologize for the wait, due to some editing problem and lack of time. We have to change some word or two to make it easier for my editors in the future chapters. Thank you to all of you for being patient with us. We'll continue chapter 3 as soon as we can.


	2. Chapter 2

**Flower of a valiant heart**

_ Ship Henry x Charles _

_ Proofread and edited by my friends Haz, Star & Neply _

_ Inspired by Flowerfell _

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**_"Golden Flower: A Reminder of Past Failures"_ **

  
  


_ \- System rebooting 5% _

_ \- Unable to identify corrupted file _

_ \- Time Remaining: 23 hours _

_ \-  _ _ Please do not close the PC until the process is complete _

* * *

"What the fuck happened to my computer?"

A disgruntled Player, wearing baggy pants with an equally baggy shirt, returns back to his computer after doing a few chores. They want to continue where they left off in the game  _ The Henry Stickmin Collection _ .

One could imagine his surprise when he saw his computer reboot itself entirely! He is scared (scared is an understatement. He is downright  _ terrified _ ) that all his progress in the game might get lost  —  or worse, all of his personal files in his computer might have been deleted. All the assignments, essays, and even his notes on some cheat codes might be gone! The efforts made from the shedding of his blood, tears and sweat is in that computer, damnit!

"Shit! What am I gonna do?” he paces back and forth in their room. The computer still gives him the blue screen of death.

He lets out a noise of frustration, “I can't close it down or else I'll end up breaking whatever is causing this rebooting system! Fuck, I don't have enough money to buy a whole goddamn new computer." 

The Player sighs and opens up his browser in his phone (thank god his phone still works, he will scream out loud if it didn’t), to check if anyone has the same outcome after getting that ending in the game. It is a way to pass the time while waiting for the computer to reboot, and also to avoid that massive anxiety that’s creeping in on him. He really does not want to think what would happen if the computer really deletes everything.

He really hopes nothing is lost in his computer. At least not the personal stuff. He could care less if the game got deleted when it is the main cause of why his computer is rebooting.

Glancing back to his computer’s screen, he tries to read the words shown there:

_ \- Rebooting computer _

_ \- Searching for corrupted file in The Henry Stickmin Collection _

"Once it's done rebooting,” he mumbles to himself, rubbing his hand to his face. “I'm gonna delete this game. If I'd known it would do this, I wouldn’t have bought it at all." He is pissed at the current scenario. The worst part is that no one else had encountered this outcome as well after he searched around the internet on any reports of any other people who had the same experience.

_ Great. How lucky… not. _

The person walks away, wanting to find something to ease the stress, but not aware of what were the words flashing on his computer.

  
  


_ -System rebooting 50% _

_ -Access to open Henry Stickmin accepted _

_ -Replaying Henry Stickmin _

_ -Time remaining 20 hours _

  
  


“Ugh,” a soft groan escapes Henry’s lips as he slowly opens his eyes to look around him.

"What... happened…?" Henry says to himself, his vision a bit blurry for him to see clearly of his surroundings. He slowly blinks his eyes, trying to at least get rid of his spotty vision. His body aches a bit from laying down on the ground. Once he has his vision back, he then notices that he is in a sandy place (that looks quite familiar) as he hears a loud ringing in his ears. He slowly sits up and rubs his hand on his head out of pain. It feels as if he hit something so hard  — hard enough to feel this much pain. When he looks around, he sees this familiar wall in front of him and a few bombs near it. Out of shock, he quickly stands up and runs away from the bombs, but thankfully it did not blow up.

"Well," Henry thought. "Glad it didn’t blow up yet, I’m tired of seeing that stupid  _ fail _ sign again."

He stares harder at the wall and bombs, but then a thought comes to mind, making him step back in surprise when he finally realizes why the place looks familiar...

It's the Bank that he failed to break into back then — where it all began.

"Why am I here again?" Henry questions no one in particular. "Didn't I do this already? The stupid player must be messing with me..."

Henry is annoyed, yes. Being far back in the beginning is painful for him, as it always remind him of how it all started when he had this stupid idea to steal some extra cash just to pay for his rent. 

While busy with the thoughts in his head, something hit him from somewhere, causing Henry to yelp a bit in pain. He turns his head to look around, and at first he sees no one nearby, but when he looks down at his hand, his eyes widen upon seeing something new on his skin…

For someone like him who has faced death multiple times in various timelines, he just can't comprehend what he's seeing right now.

"What the —?" Henry says with a shaken voice as he looks at his hand. A small golden flower bud is growing on the center of his wrist. "How is this possible?"

Henry tries touching it, fingertips brushing lightly on the plant. The petals were soft to touch, and definitely felt real, leading to him to assume that this is not just some hallucination.

"It's a real flower bud, alright," he mutters to himself. Henry then tries pinching the bud, but nothing happens  —  not even a feeling as well. He then takes a deep breath and slowly tries to pull it out of his wrist, but the action itself instantly allows pain to shoot through his wrist then to his whole arm, making him stop immediately.

"OUCH! What the hell!" He hisses in pain as he glares angrily at the bud. "What on earth is happening to me..."

Henry, in a panic, looks around for an answer to his situation, but nothing is seen in plain sight, other than the bank and the desert.

Realization then hits him.

The world isn't moving forward at all, his surroundings frozen like a picture. Only him walking and screaming. He could see a bird in the sky staying still in the sky, the wings not moving at all, As he wonders why, he looks up at the place where the screen should be.

It reads "Fail. Try again?"

Henry is confused about what's going on and tries harder to look at what's happening in the game. He can move freely while everything around him is frozen in place, as if someone pressed a pause button on everything but him.

"Where's the player? Why am I able to move freely now? Isn't this a fail? Shouldn't I be dead?"

Henry ponders on many questions in his head, hoping that someone out there can answer them, but nothing comes and nothing happens.

"The player is gone," Henry happily says to himself. He now can move by himself, and not be a puppet anymore…

He can just be himself.

For the first time in forever, Henry feels excited. He is finally free from this torture that he has been living for all of his life. He jumps for joy as he tries to understand how this freedom works.

"I know all the timelines, so I can probably control all my choices without that dumb player controlling me. I'm so excited! I can see Charles again. As well as Ellie, the general, and everyone else. I'm finally a freeman!"

Henry says this as he accidentally hits the  _ Play  _ button, then his feet unintentionally stepping on the  _ Shovel  _ option. Like a puppet, invisible strings tug at his arms to make him use a shovel to start digging through the sand, with no control of his own body.

"No. No. No. Stop it, body! Stop it! Am I not free? Why is this happening — " he says this as he continues digging until the shovel hit something hard. 

_ Shit, don’t light up the lighter! _

Henry knows what happens when he does that, from experience, but the invisible strings did not stop as he watches in horror as his hand lit up his lighter in the hole.

_ Oh boy _ —

An explosion ruined the peace of the desert.

Back again in the fail menu. Henry looks at it with annoyance. No matter how free he is now. His only option in order for him to move forward and progress the story further is to choose which item to use.

"Even though the player is no longer in control of me, this damn game won't leave me alone. Damn it." Henry says with disappointment in his voice as he punches the air in frustration.

Something catches his eye.

He looks at his hand. Another flower bud has grown near the one on his wrist. "Another one?" Henry says as he gently touches the flower bud.

If feels so real, and weirdly enough it has a little glow every now and again. Henry does not know what to think about this flower that's growing on him, since he already has an issue that he needs to deal with.

Sitting down, looking at his options on what he can do to move on, he looks around the dry land of the desert. Sure enough, there is no flower, as well as no water to give to any living thing nearby  —  unless you're a cactus, then you're living your best life there.

Henry sighs as he rolls down his sleeve to check where the flowers are growing. Sure enough, it's only from his wrist so far.

Out of curiosity, Henry chooses the  _ Replay  _ option and chooses the  _ Machine  _ option to "break the wall", knowing it is a failure that will not harm him if he chooses it. When he is sent back in the menu with the Fail screen, Henry looks down at his wrist and sees a new flower bud, while the previous one grows a little bit bigger than before.

"Do the flowers grow and increase in number as I encounter a fail? What type of joke is this? First, you fool me by thinking I am free when I'm not, and now I am given this as a reminder of my past failures? Why are you doing this, Game?!"

Henry is outraged and screams in frustration. To him, this game loves giving Henry false hope. Now, as a reward of being free, the game decides to give him a painful reminder of his failure, in the form of flowers growing on him.

After screaming for one and a half hours he started doing the fails on purpose so that he can die over and over again, this is to see if he can try getting rid of this pain. He continues doing this until finally he chooses an option that leads him to progress the story further, until he lands in jail, just how the story goes.

Henry is now in his prison cell, looking lost on what to do. He thinks if he stays in his cell, maybe the game will let him suffer alone. A few seconds later, Dave and Rupert meet him outside his cell, bringing him the box that will have the fake cake that will help him escape. Henry has enough and decides to give them a hint that the cake is actually useful when he escapes later.

"There's a cake in there,” Henry says with a little sass in his tone. “Well, a fake cake with some things hidden in it. With it I can escape and make one of you lose your job." 

Rupert gets angry and tells Henry not to play around when he is the one behind bars and not the two of them. Henry just scoffs at him, which just angers Rupert more. While Henry mocks Rupert for the first time, Dave remembers that he forgot to check the box before handing it to Henry.

"Wait Rupert, stop. I think Henry's right. Look," Dave says as he shows Rupert what is inside the box.

"You gotta be kidding me. How did you know this, you criminal? How did you know this, and why tell us about what’s hidden in it? Are you planning something, Stickmin?" Rupert questions as he cracks his knuckles out of frustration on seeing Henry’s smirking face.

  
  


Why  _ did _ Henry tell them? He could have just stayed quiet about it, so that he can escape once they leave him alone. A little part of him regrets telling them, seeing the chance of escaping slipping away — but another part of him just feels like giving up on continuing on with the story.

So what if he lost his opportunity to escape? He has given up.

Besides, he wonders how the whole world will react if he tries to go against the actions he should have followed to continue on with the story, like a rogue artist refusing to follow the script to a play.

Henry gives a shrug, then says with a smug tone, “Who knows? Maybe I have another plan to use to escape—” (of course, that’s a lie) “—or maybe I just wanted to see how you’d react. All I’m concerned about right now are these flowers.”

He leans forward, holding out his exposed wrist to show them the flowers. Looking at the confused looks on their faces, Henry lets out a chuckle. It's been forever since Henry had a good laugh, so he thought why not confuse them to find entertainment to irritate Rupert. Though he sees Rupert get over his confusion quickly and glared daggers at Henry.

"Are you crazy or something? There's no flower anywhere on you.”

Henry stills at those words.

_ Wait… they can’t see the flowers? _

Before he could ponder about it more, Rupert continues to talk.

“Anyways, you're in jail with solid floors. There is NO way you will be able to escape this place,” the man shook his head at Henry. “I think being here has finally made you lose your senses. I'm impressed that you know what's in the box, but ‘flowers on you’? Heh, yeah. Sure,  _ flower boy _ .”

Henry made a sour face upon the nickname as Rupert turned to his partner, Dave. 

“Let's go, Dave. We need to report this to the chief," Rupert says as he gives the box to Dave as he walks over to the elevator.

Dave did not make any move to follow him, but he looks back to see Henry's confused face, the criminal staring at his wrists with furrowed eyebrows. Feeling a bit sympathetic for Henry, Dave grabs a cup from a nearby table and pour water in it. Carefully, Dave slips his arm through the jail bars and offers the cup to Henry. The criminal lifted his head up to see the glass, and was confused of why a police officer is offering kindness to a sinful criminal like Henry.

"Hey, even if you’re a criminal, thanks for the heads up,” Dave’s voice is soft, but sounded warm and genuine, not fitting for tough cops like Rupert. “I think you should rest for a bit. You look really tired. Plus, your health is more important, both physical and mental.”

Henry has no idea of what to say. He is not used to kind acts directed to him, especially coming from a cop. With care, he accepts the glass from Dave, mumbling a soft thank you, to which Dave gave a bright smile to him in return.

“Um, don't mind Rupert, please. He can be a bit cranky when he doesn't get the reaction he's hoping for from the criminals he’s talking to," Dave says to give Henry a bit of comfort after letting Rupert poke fun at him. To reward Dave’s way of comforting him, Henry offers a small smile.

The nice cop could not offer more words to Henry since he then hears Rupert yelling for Dave to hurry up. Henry glances at Dave as he watches him run hurriedly to Rupert, the criminal watching the doors of the elevator slowly close once both of them are inside.

Looking back, Henry was only able to escape the prison because those two gave him the cake that helps him progress the story further — thanks to the two policemen and the mysterious box.

He knows the cake is the only option to go forward with the game, but Henry wants to stay this time, not planning to escape.

"It's for the best for everyone. Especially those two," Henry says as he remembers what will happen to Dave and Rupert if he escapes. He looks down at his glass of water and takes a couple of sips as he feels a bit of pain on his arm. He glances at the flower buds that are slowly growing the longer he stays in jail.

"Is this the best choice I've ever made?" Henry starts to ask himself as time passes by, hours and hours come and go, with the flowers blooming on his body now reaching to his neck.

It is night time before Henry is aware of it, the moon glowing softly in the night sky. The stars glitter in the darkness, like glitter on dark paper, and Henry quietly watches a shooting star shoot through the sky, allowing anyone who sees it to make a wish. The night is quiet, as the prisoners in other cells are probably asleep by now, all except for Henry. He is about to retire for the night, but then hears a sound coming from the other side of his cell. Henry turns to the source of the sound that broke through the quiet night of Henry’s.

It is the other criminal. Henry never tried to talk to him, since he never saw him again in another timeline, or at least he assumes he didn’t. The prisoner calls out to Henry with a whisper, so that no policeman can hear him. Henry sits down and slowly scoots closer to his wall.

"I'm here, what do you want?" Henry asks softly as he waits for a reply. Then he hears a muffled voice — though it is clear enough for Henry to understand the words.

"Is it true that you can escape with that cake-box? If so, why won't you just take it and leave?"

Henry lets his back lean against the wall as he looks at the clock, seeing the seconds ticking away.

"If I leave, I'll end up just hurting the people I love again," Henry says with a little sigh, knowing that he can be a little bit honest as his way of releasing a tad bit of frustration out.

The prisoner snorts and rolls his eyes. "Fuck them. Did they even care about you being in jail? No, of course not, else I’d see you out of here by now. What if they got hurt? So be it."

Even though it is a bit muffled, Henry can feel the man’s frustration of staying too long in jail without anyone visiting him. Henry feels bad for this person, and also a bit jealous that he can stay here without consequences. He on the other hand has a bunch of flowers growing on him like some unknown infestation phenomena.

Henry wants to see if he would stay here — if there will be another day of the same situation with Rupert and Dave, or if there will be different outcomes to the story with the new options he is making for himself instead of letting any Player control his life. Also, he wants to know by watching if the flowers will slowly grow more with this path he’s taking.

He gives a tired sigh as he says, "I know you might not understand this, but what will you do if you are given a second chance to change reality itself? What if you can change the outcome, the deaths done, and all that kind of stuff? Maybe you can prevent all those from happening. But, really, what will you do?" He then glances at the clock ticking. A few seconds until midnight.

The prisoner just stares at Henry, not showing any emotions. Henry, for a while, thinks that the man will not reply, but then he hears a sigh from said man before he speaks up again, looking like he aged another few years that very moment.

"’Nothing’ will be my first option, and then I’d just let it play out, because we never know what kind of reality can affect us. But... if it’s to save someone from death, then... maybe I would let myself take their place, so that they can live, even if they will have to go on with life without me."

For a split second, Henry could see the prisoner as himself — he can see himself crying,  _ mourning, _ in the  _ Valiant Hero  _ ending. When shock takes over Henry as he further remembers the  _ painful _ memories, Henry is then too distracted to pay attention how the moon reaches high in the sky, signaling that it is now midnight.

That very moment, the environment around Henry all faded into a mix of colors, like how one would mix different colors of watercolor paint into a bowl of water. It was nauseating to watch, but after a few more seconds, everything finally stilled, making everything clear for Henry to notice that—

_ Wait a minute. _

It is daytime once again when it should have been midnight. Henry looks around until his eyes landed on Dave and Rupert, holding the box — his package.

Strangely enough, it was like Henry went back in time to replay the events of when Dave and Rupert gave the package, with Rupert teasing him. Though the longer Henry watches Dave and Rupert say the same things they said before, the more he can conclude that he  _ might _ have gone back in time.

This time Henry lets them give the box to him, but chooses not to do anything with it, letting the time pass by again and events repeat themselves. Henry also chooses to not talk to the prisoner this time. 

Even without doing anything, time keeps repeating itself once it reaches midnight, like a broken record repeating its music all over again.

Out of options, Henry just impassively looks at the same scenario. Even Rupert’s mockery does not bother him anymore, making Rupert annoyed when Henry shows a lack of attention to what he is saying to the criminal, not even sparing a glance at the cop. Giving up, Rupert then tells Dave to just give him the box and leave him alone.

Whenever night comes, the game always goes back in time back to when Rupert mocks Henry, and Henry guesses that time will keep repeating itself only until Henry decides to follow through the story without going against what he is programmed to do in the game.

It’s annoying to hear Rupert’s same mean joke over, and over again, but Henry still plays along until they finally leave him alone. Though by going against the story, making the day repeat itself numerous times, it seems the game gives him punishment in the form of flowers growing on Henry. Now looking at how much flowers have grown during the whole time Henry keeps repeating the events a lot, he can now see that the flowers have covered his whole arm and is now reaching his shoulder.

_ What to do?  _ Henry thinks to himself, glaring at the flowers that seem to mock him about his lack of freedom of choices.  _ I'm wasting time here. If I don't do anything soon, these flowers will keep on growing, no matter what. Even if it's a  _ fail  _ or not, if I don't do as I’m told, it will keep growing, gah! _

Henry is so pissed on this so-called “freedom” he has. How can one be free but  _ not _ free at the same time? Is Henry fated to never be  _ truly _ free? Henry looks at his options on what to choose and thinks how he can escape this. 

Then, out of nowhere, a thought comes into his head.

Maybe if he completes the story, all in one go, then live on the one ending he liked — what if he does that? What if that is the answer to make time stop repeating itself, and finally let the flowers stop spreading all over his body? Maybe that's why he is given the option to choose by himself this time, without the player controlling him.

_ Maybe that’s my chance for freedom all along, _ Henry contemplates.  _ Maybe I’m given a chance to choose an ending on my own, and finally live however I want to live my life... Why didn't I think of that sooner!? _

With those thoughts, he finally decides to attempt to escape, after how long of not wanting to escape. A plan in mind, he tries to take the  _ sneaky route  _ option to escape the prison.

As he arrives at his apartment, he takes his time to clean his room, so when the military comes over to kidnap him they will not judge his messy place. He knows he has to steal the diamond even though he is sick and tired of stealing anything already, but he does not want the game to punish him again for not following the game progression, so he knows just has to do it.

He chooses the sneaky route to steal the diamond because, for some reason, he does not have enough energy to even choose the badass route. In fact, Henry's thoughts started to feel a bit fuzzy after many flowers grew on his arms. But Henry wonders why no one can see the flowers on his arm but himself.

"I thought Rupert would mock my flowers instead of making the same joke for the seventieth time, but I guess no one can see the flowers other than me, huh," Henry mutters to himself as he chooses to use the teleporter. He still hates allowing the game to take control of his choices, but it's the only way to move forward without time to go back on repeat.

When Henry encounters the guard on the rooftop, he does not remember which option he should choose to get in the Museum — which is strange to Henry. Usually he remembers all of the  _ fail _ choices and which are the right choices.

Out of panic, he chooses the tranquilizer option and shoots the guard, but misses him entirely. Henry raises his hand up to his forehead, feeling dizzy as he looks at the tranquilizer poking his cheeks...

"I chose the  _ fail _ option? How?" Henry says as he passes out. By the time he wakes up later on, a new flower has added itself to Henry, located below his right eye that covers his cheek where the tranquilizer hit him.

"My head, ugh," Henry gets up and then looks at his options. It takes a while until Henry is able to make a choice. He encounters his own strings of fails again, but somehow he manages to steal the diamond in the end.

Later, he returns home with the diamond, then he tries to look at himself in the mirror. He stares at the little flowers on his skin, many enough to make him feel concerned.

"More flowers,” he mumbles to himself, and thinks that the flowers may need water, so he decided to take a bath. During his bath, Henry then has a glimpse on his legs and sees that it has flower buds as well — well, not only just his leg has the flowers… his body is slowly gaining some too.

"Are there side effects on having a garden growing on my body? How can I not remember which are the  _ fails  _ and which ones are to help me in progressing? Ugh, my body feels so weak, too. Maybe I need to write down notes to take note of, so that I won't choose the wrong option again..."

One hour later, Henry is preparing to get ready to be kidnapped by the government. While waiting for them, he started writing things down.

He remembers  _ Valiant Hero _ the most on how to get to it, but the endings somehow seem blurry in his head everytime he tries to recall them. So Henry sits there, looking at the clock.

_ Maybe I could go back if I get the wrong ending, _ Henry thinks.  _ And then I can look for the button to go out of the menu. _

With that thought, Henry tries to check it out. But is surprised when he checks it out…

There's nothing there. Only  _ retry  _ and  _ move forward _ .

"Oh no… what if I choose something wrong? I won’t be able to go back?"

_ Will I not be able to fix things once it’s done? _

He knows that  _ this  _ is what he wants — no more going back and repeating all the hell he has been through…but what if he messes up? What if he sees Charles die again, and will not be to save him?

Before he could think about anything else, someone comes up from behind him and covers his mouth with a napkin with a funny smell... 

Chloroform.

With that, Henry passes out.

* * *

  * _System rebooting 35%_


  * Unable to identify file


  * Time remaining: 18 hours


  * Please do not close the PC until process is complete



**To be continued**

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! Hopefully you still enjoy the story.
> 
> If all of you want to be updated on the story, or see content I make for the story, please follow me on Instagram :)  
> @len11_02

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first story, so please be nice!


End file.
